Over the past year and a half the Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica have written many stories about the state’s century-old towing laws that allowed tow truck companies to seek permission to sell people’s vehicles only 15 days after seizing them. The stories highlighted how some towing compa nies were removing cars from parking lots of apartment buildings if their owners failed to back into a parking space or didn’t properly display their parking sticker. Some used portable scanners to check if cars were legally registered and towed them if they were not. The people most impacted by these tactics were low-income families who needed their vehicles to get to their jobs and couldn’t pay hundreds of dollars to get their cars back, especially since many towing companies would only accept cash payments.  The legislature acted quickly to revamp the towing statutes, while at the same time establishing a working group that will meet twice more before submitting a final report by Feb. 1. Here’s what to know about what the CT Mirror and ProPublica investigation uncovered and how Connecticut officials responded. What did the CT Mirror/ProPublica investigation of towing practices uncover?  Some companies did not  allow people to get belongings out of their vehicles, such as work tools or valuable paperwork. Towing companies were also supposed to put any profits from the sale of the vehicles in escrow. If the owner of the vehicle didn’t claim it, companies were required by law to hand over the money, or escheat it, to the state treasurer. But that had never been done because the state Department of Motor Vehicles never established an escheating system. Under the law, a tow truck company would submit an H-100 form to the DMV and, if the company valued the car at less than $1,500, they could get permission after 15 days to sell it privately. If a car was valued at more than $1,500, they would have to wait 45 days to sell it and only at a public auction. Our analysis of about 6,000 forms revealed about 60% were requests for permission to sell vehicles after 15 days. There were 362 instances in which towing companies estimated the car’s value to be exactly $1,500. Owners of towing companies said during legislative hearings that were held following the news organization’s reporting that many cars they towed were junk. But the analysis showed that towers sought permission to sell at least 150 vehicles, including nearly 40 BMWs and 20 Mercedes,  they estimated were worth less than a third of their book value despite the vehicles having no accident record in the state’s crash database. The reporting also found that  DMV employee Dominik Stefanski made a deal with a Berlin-based tow truck company. He allowed them to cut the long lines at DMV headquarters in Wethersfield in exchange for picking out cars from their lot that he wanted to buy. In all, DL Auto Body Towing sold 15 vehicles to an investment firm owned by Stefanski, who then sold them at a profit. Stefanski was placed on paid administrative leave a few days after the CT Mirror and ProPublica story was published. How did the towing laws change? Tow companies must now accept credit cards and aren’t allowed to tow vehicles from apartment complexes immediately just because of an expired parking permit or registration. Vehicles now can’t be towed from private property without notice unless they’re blocking traffic, fire hydrants or parked in an accessible spot. Under the new law, towing companies can still start the sales process for vehicles worth $1,500 or less after 15 days, but they now have to take more steps to give the owner a chance to claim the vehicle. The actual sale can’t go through until 30 days after the tow, giving vehicle owners more opportunity to get their cars back. The new law went into effect on Oct. 1. What is the working group doing? The group has met three times and plans two more meetings before the February deadline to submit a report to the legislature. At the October meeting of the working group, tow company owners clashed with consumer advocates. Owners argued they need to recoup the costs of towing and storing vehicles, while consumer advocates argued for maximizing the chances that people who want their vehicles back can retrieve them. At the group’s last meeting in November, DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera proposed a new process — different from what legislators approved — that he called a compromise between tow companies and consumer advocates. Under the commissioner’s new system, companies wouldn’t assign values to the vehicles they tow and sell like they do now. Further, the sales process would begin for all vehicles after 30 days and private auctions would be prohibited.  Guerrera said this would eliminate having to estimate vehicle values while still giving consumers more time to recoup their vehicles. What happened to the DMV employee who purchased towed cars? In late November, Stefanski was fired by the DMV — nearly five years after investigators found he used his position to garner steep discounts on cars he bought from a towing company, according to the termination letter. In 2020, DMV investigators recommended that Stefanski be criminally charged for the scheme they alleged made him thousands of dollars. They completed an arrest warrant but a  prosecutor decided not to file charges, citing “prosecutorial discretion.” The prosecutor suggested the DMV could handle the matter internally. But the DMV did not discipline Stefanski or issue fines against DL in the years after the investigation and only acted after the story ran. The Nov. 6 termination letter notes that Stefanski, who made $72,000 annually, was fired for misconduct “when you used your position for financial gain.”  ...read more read less